One of those days
Jun. 15th, 2006 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmith...when things you think are going to be simple execute 720-degree triple backflips, turn inside-out, then lie there and mewl "Fix me!"
"8 rms, full bsmt" managed to do that today. Damned if it didn't turn into a shrunken version of my novel first drafts, which tend to turn up their toes about 1/3 of the way in. I tried to write during lunch, and managed about 100 words before things ground to a halt. Put the iBook away, and did day job stuff until the penny dropped and the story flipped. I sensed that I wasn't happy--now I knew why. The POV will be changing, and another character will undergo a sex change...not as part of the story, but because she will work better as a he.
I have a yew hedge in the backyard. It's not big--maybe 4 1/2 feet high and 5-6 feet long. It needed a trim, so I broke out the clippers and electric hedge trimmer and started working while the pups ran about. I knew it needed to be trimmed back about 6 inches so that it didn't hang over the sidewalk or poke through the fence, so I fired up the tools and started cutting.
Welp, I found out the hard way that this hedge has gone the way that many hedges go over time--once you trim back the new growth, you find that all you have left is about an inch of old growth and a *lot* of gnarled trunk and branch. The inside hasn't seen sun in years, and is completely bare. Sparrows had been using it as a community roost for a few years, so you can imagine the mess.
My only recourse, other than to pull out the entire snarl, is cut out all the remaining green and trim branches. It will no longer be a hedge, but two distinct shrubs. There's the potential to create some interesting shapes, assuming I can work a handsaw between branches and trim knots and bundles. It will then make for an ugly little display for a year or two, after which I hope it follows the example of its big brother the burning bush and fills out.
In other news, it's supposed to be hotter than hell this weekend, with heat indices close to 100F.
"8 rms, full bsmt" managed to do that today. Damned if it didn't turn into a shrunken version of my novel first drafts, which tend to turn up their toes about 1/3 of the way in. I tried to write during lunch, and managed about 100 words before things ground to a halt. Put the iBook away, and did day job stuff until the penny dropped and the story flipped. I sensed that I wasn't happy--now I knew why. The POV will be changing, and another character will undergo a sex change...not as part of the story, but because she will work better as a he.
I have a yew hedge in the backyard. It's not big--maybe 4 1/2 feet high and 5-6 feet long. It needed a trim, so I broke out the clippers and electric hedge trimmer and started working while the pups ran about. I knew it needed to be trimmed back about 6 inches so that it didn't hang over the sidewalk or poke through the fence, so I fired up the tools and started cutting.
Welp, I found out the hard way that this hedge has gone the way that many hedges go over time--once you trim back the new growth, you find that all you have left is about an inch of old growth and a *lot* of gnarled trunk and branch. The inside hasn't seen sun in years, and is completely bare. Sparrows had been using it as a community roost for a few years, so you can imagine the mess.
My only recourse, other than to pull out the entire snarl, is cut out all the remaining green and trim branches. It will no longer be a hedge, but two distinct shrubs. There's the potential to create some interesting shapes, assuming I can work a handsaw between branches and trim knots and bundles. It will then make for an ugly little display for a year or two, after which I hope it follows the example of its big brother the burning bush and fills out.
In other news, it's supposed to be hotter than hell this weekend, with heat indices close to 100F.
